CRAZY QUILT RETREAT 3

We are suffering through another week of high 90 temps.  One day last week it was 103 at Midway airport.
Needless to say we are just staying in and staying cool.  I had been asking my gardener guys to come and dig out one flower bed where we removed a large tree a couple of years ago.  Now it gets sun most of the day and it was filled mainly with hostas of various color and size. They were huge from all the sun.  One called Big Blue was about 4 feet across.  Well after about 6 weeks they came last week and moved them all to other areas of the yard that are in shade.  I want to replant the empty space but with this heat I am afraid anything I replanted would not take.  I want to put a couple of small roses in there, some Hollyhocks along the fence and some pretty flowers to brighten up the spot.  I went to the nursery and looked at the Hollyhocks they had and they were about 6' tall and all twisty.  At $8.00 a pot I would have needed about 6 or 50.00 worth and so decided to wait and just put in seeds next spring when we return.  I have heard they grow well from seed so will see.  If anyone knows anything about growing them I would appreciate the info.

This beautiful picture was done by another of the Kansas group.  No name again.  It was actually one of Di Van Niekirk's  embroidery panels and then she crazy quilted all around with colors pulled from the pic.  It was very nicely done.

I have 3 of Di' panels that I have started working on but haven't got very far.  They are the ones from her books and are made up of various birds, flowers, etc.  After seeing this I think I should get going and try and work on them.  I left them in Florida so next winter will be good to do that.

CRAZY QUILT RETREAT 2

I have a few more pictures from the retreat to share with you.  Next time I do this I will try and get the person's name along with the pic.  I should also explain what kind of retreat this is.  There are no classes and teachers - now saying that with the quality of the gals that are attending there should not be anything you would like to learn that someone cannot help you with.  Mary Anne arranged for us to rent this very large meeting room and we all shared the cost of it.  the retreat ran from Tues. until sun. am and some were there all the time and others arrived and left when they had to.  We split the cost of the room and it was only $30.00 each for the full five days.  They were very helpful bringing in extra chairs, tables, etc. whatever was needed. The only other cost was your transportation and your room in which case most gals shared with another so that kept the cost down.  Some bought machines to stitch and others hand sewing.  There is a tremendous amount of shopping for CQers in that area and the girls made good use of the stores.  If you flew in there was always someone with a car who would take you along.

The above pictures show 2 new quilts that Martha Green (shown in the pic on the right) has made.  They were both typical Martha and were to die for.  The one in the second picture is Martha's CQJP project for this year.  In Martha's words "it makes me too nervous to have something unfinished so I just had to do the whole year") and if you are counting I believe there are 16 blocks in total.  She made extra to get the size she 

wanted.

The third picture is of a Boho Bag made by one of the gals from the Kansas group.  No name again but for you readers that get Pat Winter's CQ magazine I was told that this was in the Spring issue.  It was beautiful and I am sure the magazine pictures did it farmore justice then mine above.

CRAZY QUILT RETREAT

I spent June 20 to the 23rd. at the Crazy Quilt Retreat in O'Fallon, IL which is about 300 miles south of Chicago right across from St. Louis. It is all due to the work of Mary Anne Griffin that we have continued on after the Omaha retreat fell apart. This is the third year for it and it gets better with time. I went in 2010 and then could not attend last year but was back again this year. There was a large contingent from Kansas City plus a lot of our old regulars like Mona from MN with 2 of her MN group, our dear Kate from Il.,Lydia Talbot from Cedar Rapids, Iowa and her SIS from CA. Karen South came with a friend from Louisville, Martha Green and Donna Johnson drove together from OK. Yvvone Streeter from Dallas and Lisa Caryl from Iowa were there. Also quite a few others whose names I cannot remember. Mary Anne had arranged for a large meeting room and there was plenty of room for those who bought their machines to sew and lots of tables for those who wanted to sell stuff. I had done a partial clean out before I came so bought a lot of stuff down and sold a lot. I  could have a retreat and sell every week and not get through all I have collected over the years. A lot is going to Goodwill once I have been through everything.

I did not get the names of the two ladies in the above picture but they both were doing some beautiful work.

The lady on the right was making a wall hanging with the basket being made in the log cabin style.  The flowers were all made with the Kumihoma flower makers.  I was very impressed with them and I must buy myself one or two to try them.

Mona was taking a picture of me as I was taking one of her. Next is MaryAnne who  made all this possible.

Here is a pic of Lydia Talbot and Martha Green.

Lydia had brought her wonderful CQ king sized bedspread for the girls to see that Martha Green made for her and gave it to her in Omaha a few years back.  I had seen it then but it was just as wonderful looking at it for the second time.  I don't know how Martha handled all that fabric.

Lydia's birthday happened to fall on the Friday and her husband and SIL arranged for a wonderful cake that we all shared..

Will be back tomorrow with more pics.  I have to give thanks to Bonnie Dudley from Iowa who took the time to show me how to post pictures on the new blogger.  Thank you so much Bonnie.  Now I can actually put text under the pictures.

MEMORIAL DAY

Today always brings a bit of sadness to me as I think of my Father and the two wars he fought in.  He was in WW1 as a young man in Ireland and in WW11 by which time he was married and living in Canada.  He was a true patriot of England and joined as soon as England declared war in 1939.  He was in until 1945 when the war ended.

I can vaguely remember him coming home on leave in his uniform and sometimes wonder if I am just remembering pictures of that time.  He passed away many years ago but on days like this and St. Patrick's Day I hear the song Danny Boy and it always brings a few tears.

I have been so busy after returning from Florida.  No stitching done around here. I have been deep cleaning all the house with help from my cleaning couple and last Thurs. they came and cleaned every window in the entire house.  Keeping 2 houses going is a lot of work but I cannot see giving up either one at this point in our lives.  I would miss Florida in the winter and Chicago and the kids in the summer.  We were at my sons Sat.for lunch  and to see the kids.  Nick was home from his first year of college and surprise he had a gal at the house with him he met at Bradley.  First girl I can remember ever seeing him with.  Jenny is going to be a senior next year and she is thinking Bradley also.  She would like to be a pediatrician but we will see.  Young Tommy is only just turned 9 so he has a ways to go.

I hope you all have had a nice long weekend and hopefully been able to spend some time with friends and/or family.

I AM BACK - HOPEFULLY

At last I am back able to blog.  Had a problem that would not let me in which turned out to be not mine but Harvs.  He does a retiree newsletter that he does every month and has been doing for many years.  He did not consider it a blog but it was and that is what had to be fixed because it was set up before 2007.  My blog was not.  Also added Google Chrome so this is just a test to see if I am actually back in.  If it works will post again later with some pics.  We are back in Chicago from Florida and everything is so green and all the trees are out and it looks so green and beautiful.  Glad to be back.  It was getting very hot when we left.

EMBELLISHMENTS 3rd try at posting

I don't know where this is all ending up but I tried taking the pics first and had a little trouble. Hence 3 posts.

The following are some of the little embellishments we have made in our class to add to our cloths.

First were the tassels and bows then dangles that were made on the sewing machines with the scrim cloth. they can be decorated and are made to hang from your cloth or tacked on top. I just saw a gorgeous piece a gal made and had these dangles on top of it and they looked great. This is such a fun class that I encourage anyone who wants somelthing really neat to sign up for Karen's next class. It starts May 1 and is the 1st class we did with making our own cloths and learning her type of embroidery. Her work is gorgeous and she is so casual and easy you will just love her. Very down to earth type gal.